By SCOTT GUTIERREZ, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, July 9, 2006

The hoodlum in the photo holds a shotgun and claims to be a 17-year-old Tacoma gang member. He's draped in blue and uses "East Side Rebels" as his MySpace.com screen name, referring to a Tacoma street gang.

His Web page links to numerous others depicting self-described gangbangers from Seattle and Tacoma. They display photos of young men pointing guns at the cameras and flashing hand gang signs, some hiding their faces behind rags in gang colors or hoods.

One 20-year-old Tacoma man with a blue rag tied around his neck congratulates his friend online for beating up someone in a recent fight:

"I hope your hands feel a little better. I will get the video to you of what you did to that guy. Keep it up babe boy."

Street gangs nationwide are taking their turf wars online, using personal Web sites and social networking sites such as MySpace to showcase illegal exploits, make threats and honor killed or jailed members, The Associated Press recently reported.

"Net banging" is the term that authorities have coined for the trend.

Gabriel Morales, a Seattle-area specialist in gang culture who leads training sessions for law enforcement officers and at-risk youths, said gang members find the Web appealing for the same reasons child predators do -- one being it's difficult to police.

"Local kids are doing the same thing. It should be a concern for parents. Some of the stuff they're putting online could be harmful for their kids," Morales said.

"Sometimes they get on there and start dissing each other on the Net, and that can lead to real violence. That's another concern."

"In order to understand any subculture, be it al-Qaida, witches, devil worshippers or gangs, you have to be able to know their own language," Knox said.

But most of the talk he sees online isn't from hard-core gang members, he said. Much of it spews from so-called wannabes, who use the Web to fantasize about violence.

"A lot of them are kids just messing around," he said.

Gangs once only roamed the streets of big cities but now can be found in 2,500 U.S. communities, according to the FBI. Police departments suddenly faced with the unwelcome arrivals are looking for help anywhere they can get it, including the gangs' own easy-to-find Web sites.

The tendency for gang members to brag about their exploits on Web pages such as the popular networking site MySpace.com has in some cases helped investigators make arrests.

Pierce County sheriff's investigators used MySpace.com earlier this year to solve an assault case involving two teens who filmed themselves pummeling a high school student. In the video footage posted online, the main suspect identified himself and faced the camera while racking a round into a shotgun, which helped investigators track him down, spokesman Ed Troyer said.

The case wasn't gang-related, but the clip was posted on MySpace, which has helped authorities in gang cases, Troyer said.

"The one thing going for us always through the years is that young people -- kids -- have an inability to keep their mouths shut. This is just another way for them not to keep their mouths shut," Troyer said.

In Seattle, the Internet hasn't played a significant role in the investigations of a special gang task force headed by the Seattle field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF Special Agent Julianne Marshall said.

The ATF's Violent Gang Task Force was formed last year and includes federal agents and a Seattle police detective. A King County sheriff's detective soon will be added, Marshall said.

"It hasn't been a part of any of our investigations that we've addressed so far," she said. "But it is something (we) monitor."

Deputy Tom Ferguson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's gang investigation unit has identified a number of graffiti writers who used a public Web site to post photos of themselves in front of their work.

"Maybe they think we don't look at it," Ferguson said, "but we're out there gleaning information on them."

MySpace.com representatives could not be reached for comment.

The local gang scene is a fascination for one MySpace tenant, a self-described 25-year-old Seattle college student who calls his Web site "Northwest Gangs." His online profile claims he's researching street gangs and invites members to join his network of MySpace "friends."

He claims to have cataloged 325 gangs in Washington and has links to numerous self-avowed gang members' profiles on MySpace.

Knox, of the National Gang Crime Research Center, said it's important for police to learn how to read between the lines on gang Web sites and blogs. Just as time on the streets has given gang investigators the ability to read the hieroglyphics of wall graffiti, time on the Web helps them understand arcane Web clues. Gang identifiers, such as tattoos, graffiti tags, colors and clothing often are embedded in each site.

"You can study gang blogs and, an hour or two into it, pick up on subtle word choices," he told the AP. "These are holy words to them."

Knox and others fear gangs are using the Internet to recruit new members, who can be influenced by the secret handshakes, clothing and slang of gang cultures.

Morales, the Northwest gang specialist, said he hasn't heard of many gang members who were recruited online. That still mostly has to happen in face-to-face meetings. But gangbangers might use online banter to befriend individuals and invite them to parties, where recruitment takes place.